"How much you want to bet that those two are making out in that office?" Carlos said as he and Jill walked back down to the second floor after finding nothing of use in the room above. No one had really expected them to but it was still worth a shot to check out.
"Don't be gross... but I don't doubt that either." Jill said with a short laugh as they walked and caught sight of Jake and Sherry coming up from the first floor.
"Find anything?" Jill asked the pair but they both just said no, although Sherry looked a bit paler than she had earlier meaning they had probably run into so trouble. Neither of them said anything so the four just decided to head toward the S.T.A.R.S room to meet up with Leon and Scarlett. It didn't take them long to come across the freshly dead licker or to see the skeleton of the one from years ago. When Carlos opened the office door her came face to face with the barrel of a gun before Leon realized who it was and lowered the weapon.
"Sorry, Can't be too careful especially with her like this." Leon apologized and they saw what he meant. Scarlett was sitting at Jill's old desk, hunched over with her forearms resting against the dusty wood, with her eyes wide open and moving rapidly around like she was seeing something that wasn't there.
"How long has she been like this?" Sherry asked while Jake went to try and snap her out of it but Leon stopped him before he could touch her.
"Don't, if you force her out of it she'll freak out. Touching her is also not a good idea, I tried to ease her but when I touched her she used her power subconsciously to make me move away. Once I was far enough it faded away but it could have been worse. This one started when we came in like last time but she was able to make it to that desk before she was completely out of it." Leon explained, she had only reacted like that one other time and he hadn't been there for it but she had told him she nearly killed Piers when he tried to touch her, Jake raised a brow but stepped back away from her.
"How long do you think she'll be like this?" Jill asked worried for her friend and she could see that they all held the same concerned look.
"I don't know, sometimes they last seconds but the longest has been an hour. I didn't radio anyone because I didn't want you all to rush here." Leon said and they all breathed deeply and looked at Scarlett who had began to mutter something but they were unable to make it out.
Her head was foggy but she could make out the blond man kneeling in front of her and she could vaguely make out that he was talking. The roaring in her ears had began to die down and she stood slowly, the all-white room had been her home since she woke up and she didn't know how much time had passed.
"Project Goddess, can you hear me?" The man asked, his disheveled appearance bothered her, his white lab coat was wrinkled and his blue eyes had dark circles beneath them. Her silver eyes looked him over, picking out the pen in his coat pocket as the only weaponizable thing on him or within the room. She tilted her head and her brows scrunched in confusion which in turn confused the man before her as he stood.
"Project Goddess, do you know who I am?" He asked and she simply looked at him. How was she supposed to know who this man was when she couldn't even remember who she was. She didn't know how long she had been kept in that room but it had been a while by the looks of the claw marks on the lower parts of the walls tallied out like days. She also felt that this man was someone she should hate, she wasn't sure why or why what he was calling her bothered her so badly, and she made her choice. She plucked the pen from his pocket and stabbed him in the arm, not a fatal wound but one bad enough that he would be distracted, before slamming her balled up fist into the side of his head. He hit the floor with a thud, unconscious, and she swiped the keycard from his pants pocket and used it to open the door.
About that time an alarm sounded and the lights turned red. She ignored this and started down the hall way looking for any way out that she could find. She jogged lightly and went into the first room she saw after going up a flight of stairs. Inside she found lockers, in one she found a set of clothes that looked like they would fit her well enough so she put them on, now dressed in light colored jeans, a pale blue button down top and a lab coat over that. She searched the remaining lockers and found a pair of black sneakers that she slipped on and a small handgun with a single clip. She tucked the gun into the back of her jeans before she glanced at the scratchy hospital gown she had changed out of and placed it in the trash can as she left the room.
The alarm continued to blare annoyingly, making her head ache with pressure, and she walked down the hall. She found a map on one of the walls and read that she was in the laboratory wing and looked for a way to get out of there. Once she found a suitable route that would lead her to what she had read to be a train car she began her way toward it. She easily managed to blend into the crowd of scientists that she found rushing the same way she was going after going through another door into a new hallway.
"Do you know what's going on? Why is the alarm going off?" One of the scientists, a small redheaded woman, asked a taller male from in front of her. She glanced back to see that behind some of the people rushing for the train car there were men in all black tactical suits with helmets hiding their faces. What caught her attention though was the weapons they carried and that they seemed to be directing the crowd.
"From what I heard one of the test subjects got out, they knocked out Birkin, wounded him pretty badly." The man said to the redhead making her flinch. Scarlett snapped her eyes to the floor when the man glanced back at her and hoped he didn't recognize her as the subject that got out. It seemed he didn't when he looked forward again and they made it out to where a large elevator was in the center of a huge room with three separate walkways. The majority of the scientists and workers went for the elevator but Scarlett continued down the walkway to the other one that would lead to the reception area of this place that was supposed to have another car.
"Ma'am, you're going the wrong way. To the elevator please." One of the men in black called out to her but she ignored them and continued moving. She heard him yell out again but they soon realized who she really was and began trying to go after her. She hissed in pain as a bullet grazed her left arm and she spun around, pulling the gun from her waistband and shooting at the group of men making the crowd scream.
"It's her, aim to incapacitate not kill. He want's her back alive!" One of the other men yelled as they shot at her. She cursed softly and turned to run for the door leading to the reception area only to find a tall man with blonde hair and bright blue eyes with sunglasses perched on the top of his head standing in her way.
"Sir! Get away fro..."
"I can handle it from here gentlemen." The blond man said as he watched Scarlett, her head tilted slightly as confusion hit her because she felt like she knew this man well. Pain began to sharpen in her head but she raised her gun at him when he began walking closer to her.
"Calm down Scarlett, I won't harm you and neither will they. Just give me your gun and I can explain everything." He said calmly, his voice was soothing and she nearly handed over her weapon but she had a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that was telling her that she couldn't trust him. She shook her head, stepping back, and kept her gun level with his chest.
"Who-who are you? What is going on?" She asked, her voice soft from apparent lack of use, and she watched him warily as he continued to get closer slowly.
"You know mw Darling Scarlett, I'm Albert Weser, your lover. Lower the gun and let me explain." He said and she wanted to listen but still something was telling her that this was wrong. She didn't get to make a decision however because he got too close and was easily able to disarm her. He grabbed her arm and yanked her to him before turning her and trapping her against him as she struggled weakly. Her back was pressed to his chest and his arm had trapped hers against her body. He tossed the gun over the railing beside them and she watched it disappear into the darkness below and felt anguish as she realized she had let him trick her.
"Don't worry Darling, you'll learn to love me again. You'll be a good puppet until I finally take you out from under umbrella's nose." Albert whispered with a small laugh before something pierced her neck and she felt liquid being injected into her veins. She screamed in pain before the liquid began to take affect and make her drowsy.
"I'll kill you." She hissed up at him with half lidded eyes when he picked her up. She had no idea why she hated this man so much, far more than the one she had injured, but she knew it was justified by the crazed look in his eyes as he smiled down at her as if she had just told him she loved him. Her vision blurred and she fought the encroaching sleep but in the end she failed and went limp in his arms as her consciousness faded away from her grasp.
Scarlett groaned as she held her head in her hands, she had finally come back from the memory, and she could hear others talking. At first she had been alarmed until she remembered what was going on and where she was. Leon was by her side instantly, touching her shoulder gently to make her look at him and when she did he saw her eyes had turned red during her memory but were going back to silver.
"Sorry, I can't control when or how long the memories are. I see that the others made it to us. How long was I out of it?" She asked as her husband cupped her cheek trying to sooth her.
"About ten minutes, they got here a few minutes before you blanked out and Chris radioed that he and Rebecca are on their way to us." Leon said and she sighed before nodding, that memory had felt like it went on for hours, and she was unsure as to why she got that one. There hadn't really been a trigger for it this time but she let it go and stood on unsteady feet.
"Are you alright? Leon said you activated your power and forced him away from you." Jill said making Scarlett blink in shock. The last time her body had reacted to someone while she was locked in a memory like that had been when she almost killed Piers. Seeing him strapped to that table when she first woke up after saving him again had triggered another memory of William Birkin injecting her with something and in that memory she had tried to kill the man which apparently had made her body react to Piers presence without her actually knowing she was hurting him instead of the memory of William.
"Yeah I'm fine. Are you all ok though? I didn't try to hurt any of you or force you to do anything?" She asked worried but Leon pulled her to him quickly seeing her slight panic.
"No, you didn't hurt anyone Sweetheart. I promise we're all ok." He said calming her and she closed her eyes for a second to bask in his warmth and love before the door opening caught their attention. Chris and Rebecca entered quickly and both looked worried when they sensed the atmosphere of the room.
"Before you ask we're all fine. She just panicked a little because she thought she hurt someone while she was remembering something which she didn't." Jill said in a rush before Chris could begin questioning what was going on.
"Well I don't want to spend too much more time in the station so lets get to searching this room. Jill, come with me into my and Wesker's old office, the rest of you check anything else in here." Scarlett said quickly before anyone could ask what she had remembered, she'd tell them once they were away from this room and on the move, and went into the smaller room inside the office. She went to her desk and checked it, finding nothing again, while Jill went to Wesker's. She began messing with the computer there as Scarlett went over to her.
"The power doesn't work Jill." Scarlett said, they were still using flashlights because there was no power to the building that they could tell.
"The power went out during a storm one day and I remember Wesker had this weird box thing that generated enough power for him to still use this computer." Jill said as she dug through the desk before finding the small flat rectangular box that she plugged into the computer and hit the power button. After a few seconds the screen lit up and an open file popped up.
I'll be waiting for you my little Goddess. See you soon.
Scarlett paled at the simple message but she and Jill both knew who it was from and it confirmed he had been in this building at some point and knew they were coming back to the city. Jill closed the file quickly before opening more and she stilled when she read part of the long paragraph typed with the time stamp of July tenth 1998.
07/10/1998
Soon the Goddess project will be ready, there have been a few setbacks since her reprograming, she seems resistant to the serum that helps us control her. The memory serum still seems to be working with only a few breakthroughs from her past but they are easily over taken by more injections. Unfortunately for Umbrella she still seems to hold that fire in her spirit that I adore but it won't matter soon. I'll be taking what's mine once her final injections are done and she will be the start to my new world. Umbrella thinks that she's going to be their perfect toy but I'll destroy them before they get the chance to oppose me, all with the help of my little Goddess. Now I just need to set things into motion, starting with the S.T.A.R.S operatives demise. I know that soon something will go wrong inside the spencer estate labs and I'll be able to test my operatives before their elimination if they don't live up to my standards. The only one seemingly worthy to be a part of my new world is Valentine, she'd make a good friend and protector for my little Goddess if she needs it but I may have to experiment on her first. I can't wait until she's ready, the world will be made a new with my goddess at my side to rule. I just need her preparation to finish and then nothing will stop us.
Scarlett's jaw clenched at the diary like document but she wasn't really surprised. Wesker was twisted and obsessed but she ignored the sick feeling in her at his typed words and placed a hand on Jill's shoulder to try and help ease her since she had read the file two. They went back into the main room silently which caused the others to stop rifling through the desks to look at them.
"He planned the spencer estate incident. Kind of, I don't think he really had a hand in the outbreak at first but he figured something would happen sooner or later. There's nothing else useful on his computer or in here so lets get to N.E.S.T." Jill said looking pale still but her words were steady, Scarlett knew she was a little shaken by what they had read but she was handling it well enough.
"I almost escaped once, that's what I saw this time. Fucking Wesker got me before I could get out though." Scarlett said as they all made their way back toward the main hall through an alternate route since they couldn't really go back through the window.
"He's always one step a head of me and I don't know how." She hissed and Leon grabbed her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze, and Jake shook his head.
"He won't get you again Black widow. We'll all make sure of that." Jake said trying to reassure her, he knew it didn't really do much to ease her worry, she smiled lightly at his try. She explained what she had seen and what she and Jill had read once they got back to the rest of their group.
"Time to go back into N.E.S.T. Once we're done here we head to the hospital." Scarlett said looking down the stairs before glancing at each of her friends. She hoped they all made it out of this and she would do anything in her power to make sure they all made it home but something in her was telling her that not everyone would make it out. She brushed off the feeling and led them all down to the lift where they would enter part of the sewer to get to the next facility.